Psychology 12: Introduction to African American Psychology
S/R Paper for April 19, 2007
By
Halford H. Fairchild
Moment
of Silence for the loss of life at Virginia Tech.
Stimulus. A student goes berserk and kills 32 others
and himself.
Responses: How do we understand this from a
psychological point of view?
No social connection.
Private (sick) world.
Clinically sick.
Gun toting society
Male socialization
The war in
32 dead in huge news in the
CORFing:
Cutting off reflected failure.
Minorities have to grapple with one of their own going bad.
If it was a white assailant, white people wouldn’t
say, “Damn, he was white!”
(I’m glad he wasn’t Black.)
Fairchild,
H.H. Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the
Earth.
Stimulus: A book review that covers Fanon’s most famous
work.
Responses: The idea of a violent confrontation is
futile. Better is non-violence.
The struggle continues – a luta continua…. (Bobby
Wright and the concept of mentacide).
Steve Biko: “The most potent
weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
Fanon makes the linkage between the wealth of the
first world and the poverty of the Third.
& militarism. Note HHF’s banquet table metaphor.
Need to document the theft of
The idea that revolution springs from the
lumpenproletariat (the poor) – is seen in the revolutionary struggles of former
prisoners – Malcolm, George Jackson, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, etc.
Notes the continued dependence of former colonies on
their former colonizers.
Both perpetrator and victim are hurt by racism.
Fairchild,
H.H. (2000). A (Truly) New World order.
Stimulus: A short story that tells of a successful
revolution.
Responses: A memorable and useful quote: “We don’t inherit this earth from our parents
– we borrow it from our children.” (vs.
our stealing of the earth from our children (global warming) [defecating on the
dinner table.] ….and having them pay for the Iraq war…)
Value of fiction.
Value of poetry (Sojourner Truth)